Scandinavia
The United Kingdoms of Scandinavia, simply Scandinavia, or Scandinavian Union, is a pan-nationalistic state which resulted from a union between the Scandinavian countries, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, the Faroe Islands and Iceland. The union also includes Norway's overseas territories Shetland and the Orkney Islands, Outer Hebrides and Greenland, as well as Sweden's Åland Islands. History Kalmar Union (1397 - 1526) The union was the work of Scandinavian aristocracy wishing to counter the influence of the Hanseatic League. Margaret (1353–1412), a daughter of King Valdemar IV of Denmark, married King Haakon VI of Norway and Sweden, who was the son of King Magnus IV of Sweden, Norway and Scania. Margaret succeeded in having her son Olav recognized as heir to the throne of Denmark. In 1376 Olav inherited the crown of Denmark from his maternal grandfather as King Oluf III, with his mother as guardian; when Haakon VI died in 1380, Olaf also inherited the crown of Norway. Margaret became regent of Denmark and Norway when Olaf died in 1387, leaving her without an heir. She adopted her great-nephew Erik the same year. The following year, 1388, Swedish nobles called upon her help against King Albert of Mecklenburg. After Margaret defeated Albert in 1389, her heir Erik was proclaimed King of Norway. Erik was subsequently elected King of Denmark and Sweden in 1396. Erik's coronation was held in Kalmar on 17 June 1397. Dissolution of the Union (1523) The union was dissolved when Sweden rebelled and became independent on 6 June 1523. In the aftermath of a civil war between Norway and Denmark in 1536, Norway with its crown dependencies Iceland, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Shetland, Orkney Islands and the Outer Hebrides, declared themselves a sovereign state after an unsuccessful attempt by Denmark to unilaterally declare Norway to be a Danish province. Personal Union between Norway and Denmark (1536/1537) In 1536, after the civil war between Denmark and Norway, planning in establishing good relations between the two states begun, and in 1537 the two parts came to agreement and started a personal union. When things had settled down, the Rigsraad (High Council) of Denmark became weakened, and was abolished in 1660 when Denmark–Norway became an absolutist state and Denmark a hereditary monarchy, as Norway had been since the Middle Ages. The Norwegian monarchy was weakened and then remained merely as a token of Denmark's mercy. Kalmar War and New Personal Union (1611-1613) Because of Denmark–Norway's dominion over the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, Sweden had the intention of avoiding paying Denmark's Sound Toll. Swedish king Charles IX's way of accomplishing this was to try to set up a new trade route through Lapland and northern Norway. In 1607 Charles IX declared himself "King of the Lapps in Nordland", and started collecting taxes in northern Denmark-Norway. Denmark and King Christian IV of Denmark protested against the Swedish actions, as they had no intentions of letting another independent trade route open, Christian IV also had an intent of forcing Sweden to rejoin its union with Denmark. In 1611 Denmark finally invaded Sweden with 6000 men and took the city of Kalmar. In fear of losing more land Sweden and Denmark-Norway entered a new personal union as a compromise. Napoleonic Wars and Dissolution of Union (1800-1809) During the Napoleonic Wars, Denmark-Norway and Sweden remained neutral in order to continue trade with both France and United Kingdom, however, in 1800 they joined the League of Armed Neutrality which the United Kingdom viewed as a hostile action and attacked Copenhagen in 1801 and again in 1807. In the 1807 attack on Copenhagen the British army confiscated the entire Dano-Norwegian navy on the grounds that Denmark–Norway was about to launch an attack on Britain. The Dano-Norwegian navy had been the only navy left in Europe able to challenge the British navy after the destruction of the Spanish–French navy in the Battle of Trafalgar. The Dano-Norwegian navy was however not prepared for any military operation and the British soldiers found the Dano-Norwegian navy still in dock after the winter season. The Dano-Norwegians were more concerned about preserving their continued neutrality and the entire Swedish army was therefore gathered at Danevirke in the event of a French attack. The British attack on Danish neutrality left the Dano-Norwegians into a hostile stance with the United Kingdom. And effectively forced Denmark–Norway to ally itself with France. In the same year, Napoleonic forces seized Swedish Pomerania and forced Prussia and Russia to sign the Treaty of Tilsit. Russia was therein obliged to attack Napoleon's enemies and expected Sweden to do the same. Since Gustav IV Adolf refused to break his neutrality, the tsar invaded Finland and severed it from Sweden in the Finnish War, 1808/1809. After the attack on Denmark, the Danish monarch was weakened and in 1808 the Norwegian monarch used this to regain control over former Norwegian territory when Danish army was employed in Sweden against Russians. This resulted in the break of the union between Norway and Denmark. World War I (1914) In 1808, when Norway gained independence, the Fathers of the Constitution agreed that in matters of international conflict, Norway should remain neutral and made this became the second amendment of the Norwegian Constitution. Since the Great Powers had no desire for unrest in Scandinavia, they signed an agreement respecting Norway's neutrality. Still, the political direction was clear: fearing Russian ambition in the north, the sentiment was that Norway should be neutral if war broke out, however in fear of unrest, the Norwegian government increased their military spending and increased their fleet. In the early 1900s, Norway's merchant fleet was one of the largest in the world, and the country required vast supplies of oil, coal and steel to build and operate it. When war broke out in 1914, Norway was exporting great amounts of fish to Germans and British alike, much to the dismay of the British Government. The Allies started preventing the Germans from purchasing these fish stocks by overbidding them, but trade in other areas continued. Imports of Norwegian copper ore, nickel and pyrite were vital to the German war industry, and by the end of 1916, Norway's Government was put under heavy pressure. Several agreements were made, none completely satisfying to the British. On Christmas Eve 1916, the British issued an ultimatum, informing the Norwegian Foreign Minister, Nils Claus Ihlen, that British exports of coal to Norway would cease unless trade with Germany stopped. The Norwegian Government felt they had no option but to comply with the demand, however swaying in direction of one country conflicted with the constitution. In the end, Norway decided to cease the trade with Germany, but continued trade with Germany-allied countries in order to please both sides. Again, the Norwegian actions was not satisfying, and in mid 1917, the brits ceased all export of coal to Norway, making Norway start coal import from a difficult uncooperating United States. The cease remained until the end of the First World War, which in turned strengthened the Norwegian resentment towards the United Kingdom and militaristic politics. Post WWI, Scandinavian Union and the World War II (1920-1945) The international postwar recession beginning in autumn 1920, hit Norway quite hard. In 1921 GDP per capita fell by eleven percent, which was only exceeded by the United Kingdom. Norway with a small open economy, was more sensitive to international recessions than most other countries. This was in particular the case because the recession hit the country’s most important trading partners, the United Kingdom and Sweden. This sparked pan-national cooperations between Norway and Sweden, which included Denmark after Hitler's rise of power. Between 1933 and 1936, the German Government, which was now led as an authoritarian country, begun its militaristic action and regained German territory which was under supervision of United Kingdom and France. In 1935, Germany created a naval fleet and an air force, which alarmed the Scandinavian countries which had remained neutral during the last two wars. The three kingdoms met and discussed the future of the countries. During the Napoleonic Wars and World War I, all three countries was victims of vandalism and viewed the militaristic actions of great power countries as morally wrong. The three countries concluded that in order to be able to remain neutral they had to at least be a moderately threat, and with the declining economy during the depression it made the countries standing alone very weak. During the recovery period after the first quarter of the 1930s, Norway in particular saw growth in manufacturing output, exports and import substitution. This can to a large extent be explained by currency depreciation. Also, when the international merchant fleet contracted during the drop in international trade, the Norwegian fleet grew rapidly, as Norwegian ship owners were pioneers in the transformation from steam to diesel engines, tramp to line freights and into a new expanding niche: oil tankers. Before it was too late, the Swedish and Danish government joined Norway in making a Scandinavian Union. The union was more or less a success in the beginning, but in the end Nazi forcefully entered Denmark and Sweden in 1943 and moved towards the Norwegian borders, replacing the governments with Nazi puppet states. Before entering mountainous Norway the norwegian government overthrew itself, and proclaimed itself as the the United Kingdoms of Scandinavia,''' '''creating a new constitution based on the former, including now that "protecting the crown dependencies and land of the unified countries is the ultimate goal of the union." The Norwegian fleet cut german infiltration from Denmark and Germany, leaving Nazi forces on Swedish territory small and easily defeated. The Norwegian army with the help of the Swedish army moved towards Denmark and regained Danish territory reinforcing the Danish government under the United Kingdoms of Scandinavia as a self-governing autonomous country. During the rest of the war, Scandinavia protected shore cities with its fleet and gave medical support to the Allied powers. In 1945, the Swedish government was reinforced as a self-governing autonomous country under the United Kingdoms of Scandinavia. Scandinavia was one of the founding countries of the UN, believing that peace would only be found when united. It became one of the six permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, and one of the six members of the UN to hold veto power. Demographics The population of Scandinavia was estimated to be around 24 million in 2023 according to the Statistics Scandinavian Bureau (SSB). According to SSB, 22,5% of the population is either an immigrant, or child of at least one immigrant. This statistics excludes third generation immigrants, regardless of their parents ethnicity. Every citizen is obliged to state at least one ethnicity at birth. The ID-cards hold space for two ethnicities, one can also choose to add or remove an ethnicity later through legal processes. Culture Human rights Scandinavia has been considered a progressive country, which has adopted legislation and policies to support women's rights, minority rights and LGBT rights. As early as 1884, 2/3 of the leading political figures, among them five Prime Ministers for the Liberal Party and the Conservative Party, co-founded the Scandinavian Association for Women's Rights, which successfully campaigned for women's right to education, women's suffrage, the right to work and other gender equality policies. From the 1970s until early 1990s, gender equality also came high on the state agenda, with the establishment of a public body to promote gender equality until gender inequality was eroded from the public opinion. The evolved into the Gender Equality and Anti-Discrimination Ombud, which was abolished in 1995. Religion Separation of church and state happened relatively early, already in the 1970s, politicians had begun to discuss the separation of church and state. In 1988, the church was officially an independent body, and would no longer receive funds from the state. The constitution provides the citizens with freedom of religion, and the state will not interfere with the religion of citizens unless there is concern for the public's safety. In the early 2000s, several Christian sects grew large in Southern Norway, and it received large headlines when the church forced women to drop out of school to retain the traditional gender roles. The priests and administration was sentenced to jail for grave breaches of the gender equality laws. The church also publicly condemned homosexuals, and several of the church goers was also fined and jailed for breaching anti-discrimination laws. Currently the largest religion is Christianity, followed by Islam. The Islamic State's (IS) act of terror in Europe and the Middle East has several times caused havoc, and protests was held in order to weaken Islam in Northern Europe, but the state jailed and fined protesters for breaching anti-discrimination laws. Environment Scandinavia has a smoking ban in all public places and inside homes with children under the age of 18. All houses under Public Housing and Development Ombud (PHDO), has a strict smoking ban both inside the houses, and on the lot. Smoking publicly around children is also highly discouraged, as it not only is damaging the children's health, but also encourages children to smoke. Education Both media and the state encourages pursuing an higher education. According to the SSB, 70% of educational institutes are private owned. In 2013, obligatory school was reduced from 10 years to 8 years as a solution for the high educational prices for the best schools in Scandinavia. Infant School (Ages 4-5) Only the 2nd year of infant school is obligatory. The reason behind this is because in rural areas which does not have local primary education, children will go to school further away from home. Therefore, in order to give the children a softer step into the educational system, infant school is compulsory also present in rural areas. Until 2013, neither years were compulsory. The infant school focuses on primary knowledge, and is used as an educational tool to pick up early disabilities. Primary Education (Ages 6-15) Partially compulsory since 2013. The Primary education focuses on guiding the children in their desired field. From the 5th grade on, children are tested and their choices in fields begin.This is in order for the children to find fields and subject they master and find fun. The school system partially excludes parents from their choice in fields, and relays mostly on the test results. In middle school, children are divided into schools of different fields, such as social science, art education, STEM, etc..